George VON DER MUHLL | Transatlantic opinion

1. What is your current assessment of the 'state' of transatlantic relations?

The foundations for transatlantic relations remain extremely strong.
Democracy and free markets have spread throughout virtually all the European continent, and the natural similar institutions in North America assure a deeply structured harmony of interests and shared public values. Interdependence is clearly perceived by both sides to be mutually beneficial, and the communications revolution of e-mail--together with low-cost, high speed connections through transportation--facilitates mutuality of perceptions and responses growing out of widespread shared experience. This long-term trajectory has been temporarily obscured by the specific personality and programs of American President George Bush. He clearly knows Europe much less well than preceding Presidents (including his father). He has already offended Europeans by his repudiation of the Kyoto and ABM Treaties, and through incautious remarks and sudden unilateralist initiatives regarding issues ranging from his protectionist tariff on steel to go-it-alone proclivities regarding Iraq he has implied a contempt for European political leaders and public opinion and an expediently one-sided conception of what military and political alliances entail. But the time is long since past when even the office of the American Presidency and the personality of its current incumbent can undo a web that has been tightly woven across the Atlantic over the past half centuiry.

2. Do you think that the next decade will bring positive news in the two ‘historical’ pillars of the US-EU relations: security and trade?

Yes-for all the reasons I've given above. The sheer scope and increasing volume of free trade alone would assure that outcome, even if there were no increasing awareness (which there is) of ecological mutual dependence on this planet and a common interest in reducing military tensions through incorporating new regimes such as the East
European, Ukrainian, and Russian into a broadening North Atlantic community.

3. You support the organization of the congress 'Reshaping Transatlantic Relations for the XXIst century: the citizens' perspective' to be held in Miami on November 14th-16th. Do you think that such an event can bring new fresh ideas on the present debate over the transatlantic relations?

I should certainly think so. All such conferences hold potential for adding to the basic trends I've referred to above; and this conference seems to focus more explicitly than most on specifically and broadly transatlantic ties. How "fresh" the ideas presented at this conference will prove, and how swiftly they will disseminate throughout influential channels is more than I personally can judge at this stage.

4. Is the ‘people-to-people’ cooperation able to open new fields of constructive US-EU cooperation in the coming years? In which way?

As in my response to the previous question, I don't feel fully qualified to provide a detailed, authoritative answer to these questions at this point. What connections the people attending this conference will have with others who are critically shaping transtlantic relations at present remains to be seen. Given the current preoccupation in both Europe and the United States with American intentions regarding Iraq and the growing friction these declared intentions are generating, it may be a while before the positive effects of this conference can be properly assessed. On the long run, however, recognition that the U.S. is too large, diverse, and complex a nation to be wholly spoken for by any one political leader will override these current tnesions. People-to-people contacts can only reinforce this realization on both sides.

5. Being the two richest and most democratic areas on the planet, do you think that both the EU and the US societies face a special responsibility regarding globalization on the one hand; and on the other hand, do you think that they will face a growing number of similar challenges in their way towards the next decades?

I think the responsibilities regarding globalization are already being acknowledged in the most recent meetings of the G-8 powers, and I would expect this trend to continue. I think it's also significant that some of the earlier " anti-globalization" activists are now recognizing that the key problems that concern them will not be solved through resisting globalization but rather through insisting that fair, symmetrical policies be adopted by the advanced economic powers to assist poorer nations in gaining access to the markets of richer nations for their products.

6. Beyond treaties, organizations, common interests, ... the cooperation between Europeans and Americans is, in the end, a matter of people cooperating with people (politicians, civil servants, businessmen, executives, professors, activists,). How do you assess this 'human factor' today? Should it be improved?

I'm sure that there's always ample room for improvement in people-to-people connections. But the trends I've cited earlier-democratization, expanding free markets, denser communications networks, globalization-provide an impetus that will probably prove more powerful than deliberate, purposive emphasis on enhanced connections for their own sake. The latter provide highly desirable complements to these trends and certainly should be encouraged; but in the end, I'm confident that the continued operation of the more basic trends on a daily basis will be the forces that prove decisive.in attaining the goals sought by formal conferences.